0:01 Welcome to Advance the Dream, our weekly community chat, where we celebrate legacy makers and family heroes who are actively advancing the dream in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We talk about health, challenges, highlights and heroes in an intergenerational fashion in hopes that his legacy of hope and equality continue to live on. This weekly series, powered by the Force for Health Network, is aired live on Facebook, YouTube, and linked in at 8 a.m. Pacific Time, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
0:31 Then shared afterwards at advance the dream.com now let's meet our hosts force for health network co-founders dr robert gilio and lucy howell alongside our national director joshua williams jr as we dive into this week's topic Hi, everybody. It is March 2nd, Saturday. Glorious morning here in Tucson, Arizona. My name is Lucy Howell. I'm joined here by Dr. Robert Gillio and Josh Williams. And this is our weekly community chat called Advance the Dream, where we honor... legacy makers and family heroes all in an effort to continue the legacy of what dr martin luther king has set out along with many others right we understand that there are disparities in health that there are as a continuous need to address those and really to continue our own citizen healthy citizen training is what I call it because I continue to learn every single day, every single week as we, you know, kick off some of these special series together.
1:39 So, Rob, great to see you. Josh, good to see you coming in. Where are you coming in from, Josh, today? Today, Florida. Gadsden, Florida. Rob, you're up in State College, correct? Absolutely, up here in State College. It's a beautiful day up here, and as Josh likes to say, every day is a beautiful day if you're in that day. It's a great attitude. It's another opportunity to learn more and maybe do some good. Yeah. And since we are a new branded series, this is a intergenerational attempt to just share information.
2:20 Of course, we're going live on all the platforms, but we also have you know, engagement tools. If you want to lean in, learn more, please go visit theforceforhealth.com. You can download our app. You can join the Advance the Dream group. You can start learning more about history. You can spot check your own health. You can reach out to other like-minded people that care about this. And so, yeah, we're... Happy to kick off this platform. You know, it begs just maybe the revisiting of why we're here.
2:55 We've been working with Josh the last two years, although you guys go way back. You guys go way back to the post-Katrina days, right? That's right. We met right at the time of Hurricane Katrina and really dug in and worked with a bunch of folks Students at one of the first schools that opened where Josh was working, I was running a clinic or part of a team with a clinic actually at the zoo in New Orleans. And we really learned that an informed teenager could really be a difference in a household.
3:30 That's one of the main lessons I learned and really got me thinking about the gift we have of being healthy and the gift we have of, and that's why I say we have this thing up here saying protect the gift. People always ask about that. I think it's important to remember that the gift is your health, but it's also the gift of your knowledge, gift of your legacy, and really getting more informed about it. Josh has taught me something very important, how ignorant I am. And my perspectives on things were from a limited upbringing up north, primarily in a suburb.
4:10 When I came to New Orleans, He taught me a lot of things I didn't know. And I think I've taught him a few things he didn't know. And as you look at the faces on this call, some old Northern white guy, that's my mom calling, but I'll make sure about that. She's 99. But, you know, some, we have a mixture of white, brown, black skin. We have a mixture of genders. We have a mixture of geographies. And there's a lot of wisdom to be learned from each other But this is where what you were talking about, Lucy, gets real important to me.
4:46 Josh has been doing this thing about intergenerational education. What is the legacy people can hand down? What is their wisdom? And similarly, what I've learned from what teenagers can do to support a challenged community after Katrina, after 9-11, after the Boston bombing, inner city Chicago with gang shootings, well-informed teenagers can really make a difference. So as members of Advance the Dream, It's a group, it's a chat, it's a feed. It's like a Facebook for celebrating your legacy, but educating people that want to learn more.
5:22 From my perspective or Josh's or yours. Yeah, that is correct. That is correct, Lucy. And like Doc just said, we had an opportunity to experience some stuff. that was definitely mind changing. He got to learn about culture and I got some opportunities to learn some of his. So it was a very learning full experience. He had an opportunity, I'm quite sure it was his first time to attend a black Baptist church. He was the only white northerner there. but we had a great time uh uh just to see the the smile on his face uh being in a place where he had just met people uh that day uh that weekend actually be a part of a family was very inspirational for not only just him but for our family as well and uh we are we are beyond grateful for the time that those doctors took to come to New Orleans.
6:27 We were in a situation that we had not been accustomed to. We were pretty much learning at the same time while we were recovering. And that was a piece that was very different for us. But we actually got an opportunity to train kids on how to actually step in and do some of that work was necessary that they know of at the time. So it was very inspirational for us and the kids that were part of that first school that reopened after Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, the James A. Singleton School at the Dryads YMCA Yes, absolutely.
7:10 And the data collected from that operation showed that seventh or eighth graders putting together a plan, not only for how to get ready for the next year, first of all, how to recover from Katrina, how to get ready for the next hurricane, how to get a plan to escape and look after your family. You have a go kit ready that when the next hurricane came through, instead of 90% of those kids needing city services or a shelter, I think it was about 85 or 90% of those kids pre-evacuated with a plan with their families.
7:40 And frankly, at the time of their life, with one of their biggest trips out of their area. Yes. And planning to respond to an adversity. But also what I liked about your approach, Josh, was planning to recover was a very unique thing. How do I get stuff's going to happen? How can you get through it? Adversity is going to happen. How can I get through it? And that kind of leads to kind of a little bit of the message from King. Um, uh, and that, that is stuff is happening and it has happened and has happened for generations.
8:14 Some of which we'll talk about here. How do you get past that? How do you recover from that? How can you make sure it doesn't happen again? Um, you know, as, as we think about it, advancing the dream and what people have done, um, what they've experienced and what they've done and what they can do. And that's the, that's the most fun for me is what they can do. Well, I think that, um, this whole initiative is really tied to one of his quotes and we say it almost every show and we'll continue to say it uh you know with regards to inequalities and health care is the biggest injustice of all and you know that inequality in health care maybe some people can be so polarized where they're only looking at it when they need care right in that time now that category alone deserves focus and justice.
9:09 But when you look upstream as to what causes all of those issues that would create the need to go seek care, a lot of that is on ourselves, right? And so, yes, It depends on perhaps where you were born. Zip code and space really play into your capacity to thrive. You know, it reminds me of the 2030 social determinants of health factor, that little pie. that has all of the factors that go into a person's ability to thrive and be healthy. We call that the social determinants or Rob starting to, not the social barriers of health, the social determinants of health, just basically the factors.
9:58 It's very common to hear somebody say, well, they're just lazy. If you're fat or if you're out of shape or if you're sick, you're just not taking care of yourself. And it's guesstimated that personal accountability is really in that 28, 32, 30% of reason. When you've got access to care, you've got access to transportation, access to education, access to safety. When you pull all of those factors in, it really does matter. But ultimately you gotta, burn the candle at both ends, right? We have to make sure that everybody understands that in a time of, uh, like the teenagers in new Orleans going straight back to that, you know, matter, it would just be nice that everybody knows what to do and is, you know, kind of healthy at the time of then emergency though.
11:01 So they can throw up, I think you call it thrive. in ordinary times so that they can survive in extraordinary times, right? Yeah. I mean, you find that, oh, my gosh, disaster happened. I'm still alive. How can I survive this now? Stuff's happened. How can I survive? And then kind of where Josh was going with this, how can we thrive? How can we use the wisdom of the generation ahead of us? How can we use knowledge from a program? I don't like Force for Health or like from Stanford Online or whatever else.
11:31 There's wonderful things out there. How can we thrive? Lucy, I'm reminded of something. I know this is corny as can be, but sometimes you just kind of click through your phone. And in preparation for this call, I saw a video from that great white female philosopher, Taylor Swift, at a 2020 concert. It's one of those little posts that someone did. But it was a video of her saying, When adversity happens or when you make bad decisions and you have an adverse outcome, I'm paraphrasing, you're not damaged goods.
12:14 You're wiser. And you come through it with that perspective of we all make bad decisions. We all have that donut instead of an apple. We all have maybe that cigarette instead of taking a walk or whatever it is. Those decisions that will lead to premature death. in people in their 50s and 60s and 70s from cardiovascular disease, the number of those decisions that are made, they pile up. They pile up like narrowing layers of fat in your blood vessels, narrowing your circulation to your heart, narrowing the circulation of your brain, and then suddenly a heart attack or stroke takes out someone Josh's age, my age.
12:55 Prematurely, 10 years before someone else who wasn't in that demographic, who wasn't from that zip code, who wasn't from that racial ethnic makeup. So we all make bad decisions. You're talking about that we make the healthier decisions we can, that kind of that learn about what healthy decisions we can make from our health standpoint, but also from a standpoint of Am I part of what is making it bad for you, for someone else? Am I part of the toxic stress that someone might experience in their life?
13:32 Have I been biased in a way I didn't know? Can I touch your hair, Josh? I've never felt it like that. Who needs that crap? If I walk to the other side of the street because I am scared because the only people I've ever seen on the news that didn't look like me were the bad guys. And so I'm trying to avoid that. Those kinds of insults, toxic stress types of things might be biased. In the healthcare system, there's bias. I read an article yesterday talking about the pulse oximeter, the device you put on your finger that measures your oxygen level.
14:08 They actually use the word biased engineering in the conversation. I don't think the engineers were necessarily biased for people with more melanin in their skin. But the outcome is that those devices artificially estimate a higher level of oxygen the darker your skin is. It's harder to do the measurements. The calibrations are based on skin that is more of a bland white color as opposed to the various levels of brown or black. And the adjustments for that are something that some companies are building into it.
14:46 But it really wasn't well understood until COVID. But even at the level of the medical equipment, the word bias is snuck into there. I'm not sure that all this implicit bias and those types of things are really something done with malice, but it exists. And I think we have to address that. And we're not just saying that. We've been actively leading projects, you know, specifically in Ohio, where Cleveland, Cuyahoga County had the highest, you know, percentage of infant mortality rates. no community wants to be known for the highest mortality rates of anything.
15:33 We're seeing in Philadelphia, right, with their high mortality rates with gun violence. And I like to see action around that. But really that exercise was a lot of times people don't realize that, what do you mean you don't have insurance? What do you mean you have to take the bus? Gosh, I can't imagine having to take the bus. When that frontline receptionist is having that type of exchange with that mom in front of them. Again, they're not, I don't think, intentionally trying to be malicious or racist or mean.
16:08 It's just that they need to be conscious and more empathetic to the plight of many people. To clarify slightly what you're saying or to add to it, you said the highest mortality rate. The key part of that was a two to three times higher mortality rate of people with darker skin than lighter skin, despite neighborhood and despite income or profession. So it wasn't like the poor people were prejudiced against. And I think there's probably plenty of implicit bias from healthcare providers, even with the example you just gave of, you're late for your appointment, you must not care about your baby or your child.
16:50 Yeah. If the bus was late, if my person was going to drive me because I don't have a car, got called into work and had to find another ride. I'm trying as hard as I can. So there's implicit bias, I think, against a lot. We'll need to tee that up. We'll need to tee that up as a whole show, right? And host a roundtable there. And again, you know, even someone like my husband is like, what are you doing? You know, you're not even black. Why? And this is a very real show. If you look down the corner here, you know, reality health games.
17:24 I mean, Rob and I, we are trying to really have this dialogue conversation exchange platform that real people can come and talk about real health issues. Because honestly, you really don't think about what needs to be done until you're faced with a health crisis yourself, whether it's It's your dad has prostate cancer and it's the first time you're in the hospital. You have no idea what some of the terminology is that they're using. You have no idea what you should have brought to the appointment perhaps to make it better.
17:57 So this is really a reality health games deal. And in talking with the leaders from, let's just go ahead and remind everybody also, Josh, as the three of us are, are really about mentorship. reaching out, service, sacrificial service. I'm going to bring up Joe Bird when he was on, right? It's just been really interesting. Oops, he probably lost me. It's been really interesting to highlight these leaders that you were a young man at the time of your mentors, right? going and actually creating the process and the need for the memorial behind us, you know?
18:47 And they were the fraternity brothers, right? Legacy brothers of the Alpha Phi Alphas. So to me, it's like, you are real life living this experience. And that's why we're so excited to partner with you to help advance the dream and the conversations that we've had from the leaders that you've brought to the table. Adrian Wallace, right? Or let's see some intergenerational, but let me just pull up really fast. Adrian, one of his we'll just remove that. I can't find it right now, but all of the leaders have said, and there's been like four significant, we're only about seven shows in communication, communication, communication, this whole transition of knowledge from one generation, call it the boomers, right, through the Gen X, but to the millennials and to Gen Z, so they understand that Martin Luther King is not that long ago.
19:50 These trials, tribulations, challenges, and fights, not that long ago, and that we have to continue to question and continue this dream. You know, one thing, Lucy, not to cut you off, but of what Doc was talking about. One reason that I thought so much of what we were doing in New Orleans, because I always looked at it from the standpoint of when we got into Hurricane Katrina. OK, Hurricane Katrina had came, did its damage and moved on. What do we do now? Or what do we do to prevent this same thing from happening again?
20:26 So the preventive aspect was the aspect in which I was really, really interested in is the prevention piece. And it goes all the way back down to health as well, because one of the reasons why OK, the African-American population is having such a health challenge and a health crisis is because of the misinformation that we have or the communication that we have as it relates to how to eat healthy, how to be healthy, how to activate it. We have a community that, you know, that has not been educated, I think, or well educated from the standpoint of how important this is.
21:06 You know, from the standpoint of we are always quick and on the go. We don't realize how much fast food is hurting us or harming us by today's society. But it's fast. It's something quick where the parents are working all day long. and can't prepare a healthy meal. They just run and get something quick. And that's where you got your kids growing up on fast food. It reminds me of the 16-year-olds that you brought to the table a couple of years ago and we worked with them and they were on the Mayor's Youth Council.
21:43 And out of all the things that we showed him, right? We got apps, we got platforms, we've got all this kind of fancy schmancy digital stuff. And what they really actually liked most was like the simple, the simplicity of like a magazine that they could hold. They're like, wow, I really like that. Cause you know what? We don't really have any sources like that. Like they don't teach us this in school. And that was just such an aha moment, right? That P E N health, you know, and we'll even go as far as civic engagement is not prioritized or taught in schools.
22:22 So the resources brought to the table is nil. And that's literally trying to, that is the gap that we're trying to address. I feel like we can talk about this issue all day long, but let's go ahead and bring it back to some of the agenda items that we had on the show, which was, you know, one of the things we like to do is learn, right? And let's try and bring some of that history in. The whole February is Black History Month. That's great, and it gives everybody ideas and reason to focus on it, but I don't care.
22:54 Advance the Dream is a year-long deal. It starts in January with the wonderful birthday and the celebration and see how communities kick off and celebrate that. But this is going to be a weekly conversation and platform, and we're going to go ahead and continue it on. So in that nature, I learned something that I wanted to share with you guys today. Let's go ahead and talk about the Dred Scott case. So at a high level, before I did this research, if somebody asked me, tell me about the Dred Scott case, I would not have been able to say anything.
23:31 I mean, yes, it's some bullet point in history, but I wouldn't know. And oftentimes we do these shows more like a radio show. So it's not like a big Oprah production. We're not coming in and like putting on these like perfectly finished pieces. We're bringing things out just to kind of talk about it. So, you know, Josh, Rob, before we even get into this, is the Dred Scott case something that you're actively working in knowledge of? Do you know it? And then we'll go ahead and watch a video of it.
24:03 Just a little spot check. I'll answer that. Yeah, sure. John McArdle in seventh grade in my middle school, we studied this. And we had to give a talk on it. Oh, awesome. Okay. So you remember it. Brown versus the Board of Education, other civil rights and other related cases, talented teacher. Would you realize seventh and eighth grade was a long time ago? You just emailed through, hey, I found this thing. We're going to talk about Dred Scott this morning. I panicked. I quickly turned the lights on for the show and rapidly went to the web to find whatever I could learn about it so I didn't look ignorant.
24:48 But I'm admitting I was trained But it was one tiny little bit in one course many, many, many, many years ago. And so I've been cramming for the last 10 minutes before the show started. I have to admit that. And, you know, it's never the need to cram because it really is just a reflection and why Advance the Dream is this mixed race, mixed ethnicity and intergenerational type of program. platform that we're trying to make it. Let's watch a video and let's learn a little bit more. Sorry about that.
25:34 Let's take that speed back down to normal for you guys. How's that? Sorry about that. Let's start this over. In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet sued for their freedom from enslavement in a St. Louis court. Over a decade earlier, Scott's enslaver, John Emerson, had brought Scott with him as he moved from the slave state of Missouri to the Free State of Illinois and, later, to the Free Wisconsin Territory. During this period, Scott met and married Harriet Robinson, who became part of the Emerson household.
26:26 In the early 1840s, the Emersons and Scotts returned to the slave state of Missouri, where John Emerson soon died. When Scott offered to purchase his freedom from Emerson's widow, she reportedly refused. And in 1846, Dredd and Harriet Scott each filed a lawsuit for their freedom. The two cases were later consolidated into a single case under Dredd's name. They argued that their time in free states and territories had already legally freed them. And this argument agreed with the once-free, always-free policy that prevailed in many US states.
27:10 But when a later version of the case made it to the US Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney wrote a majority opinion that ignored precedent, distorted history, and refused the Scots their freedom. The court ruled that without national citizenship, African Americans could not sue in federal courts in the United States. And it didn't stop there. Led by Taney, the court decided that Congress should never have had the legal power to approve or deny slavery in territories in the first place.
27:48 The Dred Scott decision not only denied Dred and Harriet their freedom, but it also overturned the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had attempted to maintain a delicate sectional balance between North and South as new U.S. states and territories were added to the expanding United States. The Dred Scott decision was immediately repudiated by most of the Northern United States, and it has long been considered one of the worst judicial decisions the Supreme Court ever made. Dred and Harriet Scott remained enslaved until 1857, when they were freed by their enslavers.
28:33 The next year, Dred Scott died of tuberculosis. Harriet lived for almost 20 more years, long enough to see the 13th Amendment of the Constitution abolish slavery in the United States. For more, visit Britannica.com. So, you know, thanks to that from the... Let me go ahead and close that now. And, you know, let's kind of just take a look at this, you know, that these were the three points. This is the stuff that, and this, let's just start by saying, you know, we're going to have some difficult conversations throughout the course of this exchange and this community chat.
29:26 And as we we will start actually getting things out earlier, maybe getting live folks to interact with this. And this isn't meant to be political. So don't come to us as like a stupid political argument. But when I hear someone like Nikki Haley say that, what do you mean? We've never been a racist country. There are things we have to work on. But when the country was actually founded, where it didn't give all men equal rights and opportunity, quite frankly, it didn't even give women free rights and opportunity.
30:06 And then, you know, you're reminded of decisions like this. You're just like, how can you make that statement? How can you run for president and make that statement? I'm going to jump in right here, Lucy. Hold on a second. That quote from Nikki Haley, I've seen several times. The one time I've seen it, that I appreciated differently was when both sets of media didn't report it as a soundbite, but basically took the entire sentence where she said, I grew up, in my upbringing, America was not a racist country, even though I had brown skin growing up in an Indian family.
30:45 That part was cut out of most of the times that quote was used, and it's been augmented in a soundbite just the way it just happened right here. At least if that is, if I'm not seeing fake news of an expanded version of that or redoing of that soundbite, so who knows? But what I'm saying is she, in her experience, was saying that she did not experience racism. And so I can say, just like Nikki Haley, when I grew up in Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly white suburb, predominantly half Jewish, white suburb, that I did not experience racism at all, that America was not a racist country.
31:33 My perspective, maybe Nikki Haley's looking at this from an eighth grade standpoint, but when eighth grade, I did not think America was a racist country. And then eighth grade, as the news media and other things came forward to educate me, As I watched Walter Cronkite or something on the evening news, what used to be five minutes, and you see the pieces of perhaps the King's speech and the protests. And then in Chicago in 68, the riots at the convention, suddenly your perspective changes. But the misquoting, I think, of Haley, I challenge you on.
32:17 I will challenge you on because, you know, she doubled down. And I did watch the whole deal. And it was from a town hall when she actually did state from the beginning, let me ask you more clearly. And it was not when I was growing up. I was a racist. It was the United States was not intended to be a racist country, period. That's what she doubled down on even as recently as two weeks ago with Charles Barkley because that was something that Charles Barkley could not get over. So we'll disagree to disagree.
32:48 And again, it's not to solve here because we've got another part of the show that we want to get to. No, keep going. But that's why we've got an interesting, diverse mix of perspectives here and what we want to move towards. Josh, did you want to make any comment on this dread, Scott? Unlike Rob, I have experienced that hate and that decisiveness, even from the standpoint when I was younger. In this small area where I grew up at in Florida, they still had separate water fountains, water fountains for colors, bathrooms for colors.
33:33 My dad and them always had to enter the back door of some of the homes that they were working at. So, you know, I have had an opportunity, so I have seen some change, but we still, once again, like Martin Luther King stated in his, I Have a Dream speech, we still have a long way to go. And even from the standpoint of when he said it, we're still lingering with a long way to go. But I understand it's unfortunate that the only thing that happened out of the Drea Scott case was that she lived to see it abolished.
34:08 That's the only thing good I can say about that, is that she lived to see slavery being abolished. Yeah. I mean, just that, am I not a man or a brother? And then he had to die the year after. Again, symbolic of the fact that, and it's, I don't know, I'm trying not to react physically when I hear a white person say that there's no racism or I didn't feel racism because it's almost like, I mean, of course she didn't, but I don't know. Like, it's just part of me, how I react. And, and I know because you're in Pennsylvania, my dad didn't see a black person until he went to Syracuse, you know, from rural Pennsylvania in the sixties.
34:55 I get it, but it's part of like that civil discourse that we need to just kind of continue to exercise and get better at when we're talking to people. I agree. But part of it is, is I didn't grow up in Pennsylvania. I grew up In Chicago, initially in the city, and then in the suburbs, but with parents that weren't racist. Oh, yeah, love that. I was in a house, and my father was a medic in the United States Army, served on Iwo Jima, and then was later assigned to care for an African-American group of patients, which included Tuskegee Airmen at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in 1944, 45, and 46, before he got out of the Army.
35:37 So he dealt with and was part of an interracial service. He saw the prejudice and tried to overcome it then in his role as the Army. And as we were growing up, he tried to overturn it, overcome it with the ways he could. We adopted a church. Our church adopted a church in another area. We had this whole Santa Claus thing for the kids that didn't have as much. My mother was a pioneer for interracial adoption in her work. as a social worker. Her mother was a suffragette. So I was raised in this household of maybe flaming liberals or whatever you want to say.
36:17 But part of why maybe I wasn't aware of such racism is I never experienced it firsthand. Going back to Dred Scott, frankly, I'm experiencing more reverse racism at this phase of my life as an older white guy from up north. They just assume I'm a Trump or a Biden. with whatever my, it's Dr. Michael Diamond in Chicago, who served as a pioneer for diversity, inclusion, and equity, got kicked off the various committees in his university because they didn't want any white men on it, all right? So it goes a couple ways here.
36:57 Back to Dred Scott, though, the thing that bothers me the most is the Supreme Court got involved with politics. and erased precedent that the United States voters through their Congress people agreed to with Missouri compromise. Basically, Missouri, you want slaves? All right, then fine. The North will forever be free, and anybody who comes North, they can be free. And the Supreme Court 40 years later said, oh, we can overdo this precedent. It reminds me of their current Supreme Court with certain issues maybe with the Roe case.
37:33 And maybe dealing with is the presidential election and immunity decision that it chose to take on a political move to make sure a trial doesn't happen until after the next election? Are we living in the midst of right now the type of thing where courts are being politicized one way or the other, where justice departments are being politicized one way or the other? you know, going against the Trumps or going against the Biden family, how much of that is real and how much of it isn't? It's very hard as a citizen to know what to believe anymore.
38:11 And that's where it's so important, I think, to learn from the wisdom of those that have survived that era and to learn from a variety of sources where we seek at the force for health with our broadcast to be one source of unbiased, just honest, what we know firsthand knowledge. And so to learn from Josh, from his background, to learn from, oh my gosh, Adrian Wallace is a phenomenal access that he doesn't have access to be on 60 minutes, 20, 20. It's not sensational. But Josh Williams can get him on the show and talk to him about his wisdom, his experience, his days.
38:55 And that's what inspires me to be on these calls every Saturday. and why it was so important. This is the gentleman that we were speaking of earlier who mentored Josh as a young man. And so Josh was able to watch firsthand as he and his leaders did what they needed to do to walk through and actually get this memorial built. So talk about legacy champs. Let's go ahead and kind of start flipping the stage here a little bit, moving towards the Selma march now. I grabbed this graphic because I don't know in my mind again you know I care deeply but my knowledge isn't that deep and I continue to feel guilty right as we lean into this legacy builder stuff and we'll talk about this you know the Selma march and some of these things but let's go ahead and watch let's get in the mood let's watch the trailer for the Selma movie so Of course, it's March 2024 back in 1965.
39:59 This was the voting rights, again, not being of full equal equality and rights. Isn't that long ago? Less than 100 years ago. So if you have not seen this movie, please, please, please, we encourage you. See this movie this month. We even when I talk about interactive platforms, you know, yes, we've got the ability to do this broadcast. But guess what? We even have the ability for you guys to come in and engage with us. So this month we are going to be featuring for our ambassador level members, you know, an actual virtual Selma March that will challenge anybody to participate.
40:44 Um walk 54 miles in the month of march and you'll get a little badge and then you'll be eligible for a prize afterwards um but it's important to just realize and recognize gosh what kind of proactive citizen am I what do I care about and you know just looking back so let's go ahead and um watch this and then we can talk about it okay I can get us to the right deal here. Let's see. I am adding to this. Let me get this full screen and then we'll get going here. You know, go ahead. I'm sorry. No audio, Lucy.
42:14 Lucy, if you can turn on the audio, please. Somewhere it is. Here is the next great battle. I'm sorry. Hold on. Did you guys not hear the volume? We didn't hear it until I said something. Let me do that because it's too important. Hold on. My bad. I didn't realize that the volume wasn't on. I'm sorry. We have the subscripts. Give me one second. Let's add that back to the stage and let's do that again. He's got supporters. Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, inciting large-scale arrests and sympathy marches.
43:14 I'm very aware of that, Mr. Hoover. What I do know is he's non-violent. What I need to know right now, what's Martin Luther King about to do next? Mr. President, Dr. King is here. Mr. President, in the South, there have been thousands of racially motivated murders. We need your help, Dr. King. This thing's just going to have to wait. It cannot wait. You got one big issue, I got 101. Summer it is. Here is the next great battle. It's almost a place, and they ready. Dr. King! I tell you, that white book and history.
43:52 You will not tolerate agitators attempting to orchestrate a disturbance in this state. It is unacceptable that they use their power to keep us voiceless. Those that have gone before us say no more. People actually say they're gonna kill our children. They're trying to get inside of your head. What happens when a man stands up, says enough is enough? We built the path as we came, rock by rock. Probably is. We must march. We must stand up. You march those people into rural Alabama, it's going to be open season.
44:31 May I have a word? There's no word to be had. The people. The people. There's 70 million people watching. These pictures are going around the world. We must make a massive demonstration. White, black, and otherwise. Come to some. I heard about the attack of innocent people. I couldn't just stand by. Looks like an army out there. This revolution goes on and on. This revolution goes on and on. My eyes have seen the glory. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Wow, I feel like I want to go watch that again, you know, just because it's interesting when you watch these things at different parts of your life.
45:35 I feel like you have an interesting and different perspective when you watch it from time to time. What do you think? I mean, first of all, have you seen the movie, Rob? I have not seen the movie, but I saw the original. Okay. And this is where I got to say to Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Enterprises, how cool is it that they kind of pull together and keep re-energizing the memories? Because that is the seventh greatest 1963. I believe 1964 was a Civil Rights Act. That's the beginning of my awareness in my childhood, what I was talking about earlier in the talk.
46:27 Maybe 65. I don't know. I'm not good on my dates, but I was born in 54. So just picture this. That is my experience. You saw people watching the television. You heard the president saying millions are watching this. That little three minutes was some of the most extreme violence I'd ever seen in my life. And on TV at the time were TV shows like Combat. It was about World War II and Hogan's Heroes. The sanitized version of hate and war and conflict. And suddenly in my living room, I had people that looked like me beating up people that looked like the families we visited with at Christmas time.
47:16 So that's Capturing that moment with the black and white TV, with folks just sitting in their living room, this is a pivotal time in perspectives in my life. And so I'm very much looking forward to it, and we'll make a commitment to view it through the lens as this producer thing of the events, the dream, and the Selma March, but also from a perspective of revisiting my memories and my perspectives of history in my childhood as it developed. What wisdoms can I share with my kids if they ever were to do a legacy book with me, for instance, about what do I remember about those days?
48:00 I'm suddenly realizing that I'm one of the historians, remembering seeing that on TV, remembering a few years later when people landed on the moon after this. But this is a pivotal, pivotal piece. Well, any teenager right now can connect if they're fortunate and able to do so with grandparents. And you've got a walking history resource right there in your own backyard. Whatever their perspectives were, right? But anybody that lived as a middle schooler, well, even, you know, if you were in elementary school, you've got, you know, deep impressions.
48:39 Josh, I mean, what do you remember? I want to remember Josh. Is this part of your history? Let me state first that I hadn't been born yet, number one, but looking at it through my, and I've seen it and enjoyed it from the standpoint of reflecting on our history. I had the opportunity to actually see this through the eyes of my parents. And look at it from that standpoint, not being born, but actually understanding what they went through and the things that they were combated with during this time.
49:21 What they had to listen to my dad talk about sometimes I used to work all day from seven to seven and he gets two dollars and forty two cents. you know, for working all day. And it's just amazing that, you know, during that time that they were still experiencing those injustices. And, you know, I was, what, I was a baby then, you know, one or two years old. And, you know, that's what our people were being paid and compensated at the time. It was $18.74, he said, a week. after his taxes were taken out.
50:03 And that's seven in the morning to seven in the evening, Monday through Saturday. They had off for Sunday. So it's interesting to learn that. And like I said, coming from someone who experienced that, I can understand, I could see the flavor of the month that they experienced as it relates to racism and injustices. But I also can see how Dr. King, through his dream, wanted to see that changed. And I lean more to the side of wanting to see a change than trying to relive or reissue those feelings of my parents and forefathers.
50:46 So, you know, whatever we do, we talk about advancing the dream. I'm always looking for how can we continue to enhance what we now have or how can we do better? How can we live better? How can our health be better? What can we do to situate ourselves to become better? And I really think that one of the best, easiest, most impactful things for anybody to do is to simply look back and learn history because it really is an appreciation. Out of a lot of things that I've seen, this graph right here to me, this infographic, let's just kind of walk through this.
51:27 And I know it's small, so let me just go ahead and bring out some of the things, you know, starting back in the, before February, right? Let's just go back to 1965, it's March and then go back to February. So there was a nonviolent coordination committee that is talking about voter rights, right? In February of 18, Jamie Lee Jackson was killed by a state trooper during a demonstration. So he was just demonstrating and he got killed by a state trooper, right? Bloody Sunday, more than 50 marchers are hospitalized after a violent response.
52:11 They were just trying to peacefully protest. For some strange reason, I had that backwards. I thought the Bloody Sunday was on the other end. But that really was the impetus to kind of like, what the heck, man? You know, they can't just stand by and do nothing. You know, turn around Tuesday, there was a march that started there. That's why in my mind, I was a little, when was the March? Because there were actually components of it, right? They started trying to do this March, but it was aborted at the Petticus Bridge in response to the federal sheriff saying, nope, you're not going to do this.
52:46 You know, that's where we shall overcome. I mean, again, like, yes, I tie we shall overcome to Martin Luther King, but I don't tie it to that particular deal of like, wow, action. You know, March 15th, uh president lyndon b johnson delivers a speech introducing legislation that becomes voting racks acts of 1965. so it's starting to happen and then they start marching right the federal judge said okay we'll let them come across the bridge march 17th uh march 21st to the 25th more than 25 000 folks have done did the whole march and then you know um March 25th is when they were at the Capitol.
53:28 And then guess what? Later that year, August 6th, they got the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. What an incredible illustration of movement, action, and results. I don't know. I'm just... It's just beautiful. I'm a lover and life learner. I will never be settled in a fact that I know everything because I know so little. I just get excited about relearning things like this. I don't know. What do you guys think? The bridge thing, Lucy, was interesting that you just brought it up because I can think back to when I was in New Orleans doing Katrina.
54:14 When the hurricane hit, people were all despondent and, you know, didn't have a sense of direction on where to go. So if you know New Orleans, you know that there is a bridge that leads from the city of New Orleans across the river into Algiers. And a lot of citizens had took, because they were trying to get to higher ground. So they knew that on the other side of the river was higher ground. So they started to walk the interstate across the river only to be met by the sheriff's office of Jefferson Parish saying they could not enter into Jefferson Parish.
54:58 So it's interesting that we see this through a full circle and it's still happening from the standpoint that turned around, they didn't in their parish. I love, I say, I love the different perspectives that come in, you know, it's so, uh, we didn't even have a guest today and the hour flew by. I want to, um, quickly, since we've only got a couple minutes left, Rob, um, it is March. It is national nutrition month. It's also national colon cancer month. Okay. Colon cancer is on the rise. Um, In many instances, it's the number one growing cancer for 18 to 45-year-olds.
55:46 Many folks are even not even getting diagnosed properly, young folks, because doctors are not even thinking about colon cancer for younger folks. There continues to be disparity. And Tucson, Arizona actually hosts the Cologuard PGA Seniors Champions Tour. It's hosted and sponsored by Exact Sciences. And every year they host a survivor's night. And so last year I was able to meet Everett Cunningham, who is the chief commercial officer, I believe, of Exact Sciences, and got a really cool interview for him.
56:22 And I think he has a really interesting message here. So for the last part of the show, I'm going to go ahead and play that, if you don't mind. And then we can close out the show. Let's go ahead. Where are we going here? Present share screen and we will go to Vimeo. And share. Yes, my name is Everett Cunningham. I am the Chief Commercial Officer for Exact Sciences. We are so proud to be partnering with the City of Tucson, the Conquistadors, the Champions Tour, and all the close to 200 survivors, advocates, and caregivers that are here talking about the importance of early screening for colorectal cancer, the treatment options, and people's journeys.
57:27 The night like this that's connected with the Colgard Classic is special. It's because it's about the survivors that are out here, the advocates, the caregivers, the families that have gone through their own journey. People are out here talking about their own journey of colorectal cancer. It's important to know that early detection, early screening is so important. My big passion is there are 44 million people people that are out there that are of average risk that are unscreened in the United States.
58:01 And events like the Cologuard Classic, events like tonight with the advocates being here, it raises the awareness of the importance of getting screened for colorectal cancer. When you catch this disease early or you catch it in pre-cancer stage, it is very treatable. And that's what tonight is all about. My one message is, is if you're not screened for colorectal cancer, go out and get screened. There are so many options to do it. ColoGuard is an amazing, effective, easy, non-invasive option.
58:39 Go ask your healthcare provider. Go get screened. Listen, I'm an employee of Exact Sciences. We care about getting screened for colorectal cancer. I'm also an African-American male. Before I joined Exact Sciences, I wasn't screened. It's not in our culture. It is easy to get screened regardless of where you come from, what your culture is. Go ask your health care provider. Go on Cologuard.com. Get screened. It's so important for our community. It's so important for African Americans. It's important for our families.
59:20 There is a disparity for colorectal cancer. Usually African-Americans, if they do catch their cancer for colorectal cancer, it's usually at later stages. And so that's the importance of making sure that we screen early. Forget about feeling a symptom. Most people don't feel symptoms. Go get screened early. Well, so that was just, you know, in partnership with BetCheck. And special thanks to Kim Adair for inviting me to that deal. So maybe next week, Rob, we can even tee up what you had done with our 360 Human Explorer and really kind of address that.
1:00:08 But, you know, in hindsight, I mean, to recap, right? Was that a pun? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, we talked about this time in history with the Dred Scott case. We talked about what we are activating and reminding people to be aware of, which is Martin Luther King's efforts, you know, in 1965 with the Selma March. And so, again, feel free to come to forceforhealth.com and join up or advanceadream.com and join us if you'd like. And then we talked about colon cancer, right, as a national colon cancer month.
1:00:52 So it's 10.03. It's running a little bit late, but let's go around the circle really quickly with final thoughts. I'll start with you, Josh. Today has been a very exciting and informational day once again. We were glad to have an opportunity to discuss some of the Dred Scott case number one from the standpoint of the injustices that took place there. Like I stated before, he only lived a short time after they did that ruling, but his wife got an opportunity to see the abolishment of slavery, which we were very pleased about on that standpoint.
1:01:29 On the march, of course, we're looking forward to everyone to participate with us in this first ever march. March for Selma, Selma March by the Force for Health. It's a virtual march that you can actually join and participate in with us. And it has many different videos that will actually take place as you walk and learn and earn points in this process. We are very pleased to bring this to you. And like Lucy always states, we look forward to seeing you guys next week as we bring additional information back for our community to become healthier citizens while they move, learn, earn, and serve.
1:02:13 Thanks. And Dr. Rob, final thoughts. It's always for me about protecting the gift of our health, but also maintaining the wealth of our friends and learning from our elders. And so I wish to thank Josh, and I wish to thank my parents for letting me grow up in a situation where I didn't know hate or disparity. until it came onto my television. Now I'm part of ancient history. What saddens me is Josh's comment, I wasn't even born yet. And yet he experienced in his lifetime after that milestone in what seems like ancient history to people, in his lifetime then and even now, the levels of disparity, inequity, and other issues.
1:03:02 We have to do better and part of doing better is to learn what you can about the past and take the action to move and serve to make the future better. Advance the dream. Well, wonderful. So we've got some exciting things coming up this month. So, you know, join us next Saturday and advance the dream. Be a force for health. Move, learn, serve and earn every day. OK, if you're doing it over the force for health, you could actually earn coins and badges and a chance for prizes. But again, Lucy Howell here reporting in from Tucson, Arizona.
1:03:42 With Dr. Rob Gillio from State College, Pennsylvania, and Joshua Williams coming in from Gadsden County, Florida. We wish you a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Be well and be safe and protect the gift. Take care, everybody. Welcome to Advance the Dream, our weekly community chat, where we celebrate legacy makers and family heroes who are actively advancing the dream in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We talk about health, challenges, highlights and heroes in an intergenerational fashion in hopes that his legacy of hope and equality continue to live on.
1:04:19 This weekly series, powered by the Force for Health Network, is aired live on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn at 8 a.m. Pacific Time, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. then shared afterwards at AdvanceTheDream.com. Now, let's meet our hosts.
Transcript is auto-generated from the broadcast captions and lightly cleaned; timestamps jump to the moment on YouTube.
Advance the Dream · Episode Recap ·